As writers, we know that selecting the right words to convey our message in a precise manner is essential. But, what happens when two words sound similar, yet they possess a different meaning and spelling?  These are called homophones and they are tricky. Those are words that sound identical, but are spelled differently and have different meanings. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hesitated over peek and peak, real and reel. 

What makes them tricky is that if you choose the wrong one, your spellchecker won’t alert you to the mistake.
Mistaking a word for a similar one is not an uncommon mistake, but an important one to catch when editing your work. 

Can you catch the homophone errors in the following paragraph? 

Homophones are confusing words that can be tough to sea. When it comes too writing, individual choices our important. But how can won spot errors? Their is know shortcut two it. Awareness, knowledge, and editing are the best ways to bee proactive in the process to help assure each word is write.

How many homophones did you spot? Scroll to the end of the article to see the answer. If you didn’t catch all the errors, don’t fret. Practice and a few tips can help you get better. Ultimately, writers want their readers to pay attention to the ideas on the page, so errors should be minimized. That way, readers are not distracted or confused by misuse.

To that end, there are two categories to consider:
  • Homophones are words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings (words like to/too/two and their/there/they’re). 
  • Near-homophones are words that are close in sound but not exact (words like assure/ensure and lose/loose). These words can be difficult to spot and elusive to word processing program tools designed to catch errors.

How to Catch Homophones While Editing

  • Consider parts of speech. Know the difference between how words function in a sentence. For instance, cite is usually a verb that means to quote. Site is usually a noun that means location.
  • Beware verb tense. Some words change form with an added ending but may sound similar when pronounced aloud, such as ban versus banned or bias versus biased. Enunciate words carefully when reading aloud and check their use on the page to ensure accuracy.
  • Use preferred spelling conventions. If writing in American English, opt for common spellings that may be different than British conventions, such as theater instead of theatre or check instead of cheque.
  • Check for contractions. Words with an apostrophe are a shortened form of two words, so look for cases of its versus it’s or whose versus who’s. Think about the full words (“it is” or “who is”), then the contraction is the correct form.

Test results:

Homophones are confusing words that can be tough to sea. When it comes too writing, individual choices our important. But how can won spot errors? Their is know shortcut two it. Awareness, knowledge, and editing are the best ways to bee proactive in the process to help assure each word is write.

Homophones play a crucial role in search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines, like Google, use complicated algorithms to determine which web pages should be ranked higher in search results. The quality of the content is one of the factors that affect this ranking.

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“Linda has published twenty books. She blogs about the publishing world, posts useful tips on the challenges a writer faces, including marketing and promoting your work, how to build your online platform, how to get reviews and how to self-publish. She has mentored many authors and edited their work.” 

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